Gunning, Thomas. "The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant
Garde." In Early Cinema: Space—Frame—Narrative. Ed. Thomas Elsaesser and
Adam Barker. London: British Film Institute, 1990.

Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1958.

Zizek, Slavoj. The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch’s Lost Highway.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000.

Most of the authors on my reading list discuss the aesthetic implications and social ramifications of modern media, particularly that of cinema. While the works greatly vary, I tend toward those that attempt to locate and reveal the unconscious origins of avant-gardism; these authors suggest anything from early cinematic constructions to communist or capitalistic economies to the very functions of the human mind. Ideally, I desire to understand the need for avant-gardism, and how this need could exist and develop in capitalist America.